The fifth annual Cable Wakeboard National Championships will be held July 9 at KC Watersports in Hillsdale, Kan., located 20 minutes south of Kansas City. Sanctioned by USA Wakeboard, a sport discipline of USA Water Ski, the championships will feature some of the nation’s top cable wakeboard and wakeskate athletes, as well as $2,500 in prize money.

“The excitement surrounding KC Watersports, the nation’s newest cable ski lake, provides an ideal setting for the 2005 Cable Wakeboard National Championships,” said Steve McDermeit, executive director of USA Water Ski. “As cable wakeboarding continues to grow in popularity among America’s extreme enthusiasts, we expect this year’s event to be bigger and better than ever before.”

Top cable wakeboarders and wakeskaters from across the United States will compete for the title of national champion. Riders such as Keith Lidberg (2003 national champion), Rob Mapp (1999 world champion), Chad Forrest (2003 world silver medalist and 2004 national champion), Donald Shelbrick (2003 and 2004 USA Cable Wakeboard Tour champion), and Zak Stone (2004 Wakeskate Overall Champion) will showcase why they are the top athletes in the sport.

This year the Pro Men division, sponsored by Toyota Trucks, will feature cash prizes of $1,500, and wakeskaters will compete for cash prizes totaling $1,000.

In cable wakeboarding, a cableway tows riders from a circulating cable suspended above the water. Already well established in Europe, Asia and Australia, competition wakeboarding on the cable is gaining popularity in the United States, evidenced by the launch of the USA Cable Wakeboard Tour in 2002.

“The last four years have been a terrific start for organized cable wakeboard competition in the United States,” said David Cornwall, founder and director of the USA Cable Wakeboard Tour. “The tremendous enthusiasm for the sport and rapid growth we've seen so far only promises great things to come in the years ahead. Everyone is encouraged to come out and see why this sport is becoming so popular in the United States.”

Qualifying rounds begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 9. Admission is free to all spectators. Come view all the action from the water’s edge.

The KC Watersports cable park opened its doors to the public last year, and hosted the 2004 Cable Wakeboard National Championships.